Dr. Phillip W. Schoenberg Attending Summer Institute Focused on Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life

WNMU Assistant Professor of Philosophy and English Dr. Phillip W. Schoenberg, pictured here, is attending the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute focused on reviving philosophy as a way of life this month.

Western New Mexico University Assistant Professor of Philosophy & English Dr. Phillip W. Schoenberg was awarded a fellowship to attend National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Institute for College and University Faculty called Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life this month.

Hosted by Wesleyan University, the institute includes scholars from around the country who are interested in exploring proposals that philosophers and philosophic traditions have suggested for living well.

About a quarter of those who applied were selected for this fellowship, and Dr. Schoenberg was chosen in part because of his role at New Mexico’s only public Applied Liberal Arts and Sciences university. He was hired at WNMU last fall in order to update the humanities curriculum and build a philosophy minor, which is important to WNMU as it builds an identity as a liberal arts institution.

Dr. Shoenberg said the two-week summer institute is about teaching and sharing ideas to bring back to the classroom. Dr. Schoenberg hopes this experience will help him develop a course for the philosophy minor called philosophy as a way of life.

He was also a good candidate for the fellowship because of his influence on WNMU’s unique student body. “We have are a remarkably diverse student body. The fact that we’re bringing liberal arts to a population that might never get to experience that kind of liberality — freedom — in their education is attractive to those who are serious about philosophy and teaching,” Dr. Shoenberg said.